Texas to Auction Off Vanity License Plates
Monday, August 17th, 2009
State to auction personalized license plates.
Perhaps taking a cue from the United Arab Emirates, the state of Texas hopes to generate cash by auctioning off personalized license plates.
Texas is opening up personalized license plates from the previous 6 character limit to 7, which opens up new possibilities such as COWBOYS, which the state and its vendor think may be in high demand. There will also be a couple dozen plate designs to choose from.
This isn’t the first attempt at offering highly personalized plates in the state. An offering a couple years ago from a company called MyPlates failed. The name of the new company offering the plates? Also MyPlates. They’re going to use the same MyPlates.com domain name.
Although an interesting idea, I’m not sure that Texans will get too excited about this. Compared to other states, Texas has a relatively low percentage of people opting for personalized plates.
But Texas did something both accidental and smart this time around. It just released the most hideous new license plate design I’ve ever seen. I just bought a car and am stuck with these hideous plates, so I’m willing to pay to upgrade.
With seven characters, I could now be like Adam Strong. But if they allow punctuation, I’d prefer DNW.COM.
Further Reading:
Not sure about Texas law on this, but you could be like the guys at WeatherTech, who also own Mats.com. I’m pretty sure they had a space on the plate then added the punctuation themselves:
http://www.weathertech.com/store/product.aspx?ParentGroupId=2&ItemGroupId=49
Texas to Auction Off Vanity License Plates – http://tinyurl.com/qohy7o
yea I think most people add that period in themselves andrew . Will demand for 3 char domains go up now that you can put it on a plate in TX ?
Scott and Adam – that’s what I’d do. But it used to be they could pull you over in Texas for using a license plate frame , so I don’t know if they’d smile on this.
I am glad they agreed to grandfather those who already have a personalized license plate. I own “LEGE”, which is the nickname for the Texas Legislature. As a lobbyist and attorney, it’s a good way to let others know where I work.
Sort of related…there should be a way to buy vanity phone numbers from the owners.Lets say you had 1800JETSKIS.COM.You don’t really need the corresponding phone # to be successful…but it would be nice.If your jet ski business blows up-I’m sure the owners of the number are gonna be annoyed by the calls should they decide to keep the number.
Andrew, you can likely get away with adding the dot in DNW.COM
I did it with WiFi.com – I shot for WIFICOM on the plate and explained it was short for wireless fidelity commerce. Once the plates arrived, slapped a dot sticker right between the I and the C. Best advertising dollars Ive ever spent.